Share a SolidWorks Model with People Who Have No CAD

Start with what you need back

Sending the file is the easy half. What matters is what returns.

If the person only needs to look — checking a shape, confirming a fit — a viewer on their machine is enough. If you need them to tell you what is wrong, and you need that answer attached to the geometry, you need something they can comment in.

Route 1: send a viewer file

eDrawings Viewer is a free desktop application that opens SolidWorks parts, assemblies and drawings, and prints them.

1. Download it from the eDrawings Viewer site and install it
2. Open your file — .sldprt, .sldasm or .slddrw
3. Save as an eDrawings file: .eprt, .easm or .edrw
4. Send that file by email or a file-sharing service

Worth knowing before you pick this route: the recipient installs software, the file lands on their disk as a copy, and their feedback comes back as an email describing what they saw.

Route 2: send a link

A share link puts the model in a browser. Nothing is installed, nothing is downloaded, and there is no account to create at the other end.

1. Upload the SolidWorks file to the Web Dashboard
2. Generate a public share link, or a QR code for a phone
3. Send it

The recipient rotates the model, zooms, takes measurements, and pins a comment to the face they are asking about. You answer in the same thread, and the exchange stays attached to the version it was made on.

Because it is a link to a view rather than a copy of the file, the geometry is visible without the source file leaving your workspace. Revoke the link and the view is gone.

What each route is good for

A viewer file suits a one-off: a single part, a single person, no conversation expected. It is free, it works offline, and it asks the recipient to install something.

A link suits everything with a conversation in it: client reviews, supplier questions, approvals, anyone on a phone. It also survives the thing that breaks the first route — the file changing after you sent it. The link always shows the current version.

The version question, which is the real one

Both routes assume you know which file to send. On a shared drive, that assumption is where most of the trouble starts.

With version control, engineers check files in and out directly in SolidWorks and every check-in writes a version automatically. The file you share is the current one, and if someone asks what changed since last week, the history answers.

No servers, no VPNs, no admin hassles.

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